After watchingAmerica's Economy: Sorrow and Hope, review some of the causes of the Great Depression. (Speculation and the stock market crash of 1929; banks closed and people lost their savings; overproduction caused prices and wages to drop; factories closed and people lost jobs.)

Discuss how the Great Depression affected the nation. Ask students: How did their lives of the people shown in the program change during the Depression? In what ways were people in urban and rural areas affected differently? As a discussion aid, you may want to name some of the people featured in the program or write their names on the chalkboard:

Jewell Blankenship, Oklahoma

Jim Wolford, Arkansas

Endicott "Chub" Peabody II, Massachusetts

Dave Moore, Michigan

Joe Mifsud, Michigan

Dick Manoff, New York

Review President Roosevelt's "New Deal." Ask students: What was it? What did it provide the nation? How did the program affect the nation's economy?

Tell students that another event that greatly affected the U.S. economy was World War II. (You may want to remind the class that the U.S. joined the war after Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941.) Ask students to consider the people in the video. How did the war change the lives of those who served in the military? The lives of those who stayed at home?

Explain that students will write two fictional journal entries, taking the point of view of an American living during the period shown in the program, the 1920s to 1940s. One entry should describe a time of sorrow, the other a time of hope. Encourage students to consider the stories of the real people featured in the program, but remind them that they need to create a fictional person when writing their journal entries. Each entry should include the following:

Date and place

Identity of the person they are posing as (name, age, role-sharecropper, auto factory worker, immigrant child living in tenement)

A description of a sorrowful or hopeful situation or event (leaving farm for California, joining a union, standing in a bread line)

Personal thoughts or feelings about the time

Ask for volunteers to read their journal entries. After hearing several entries, read the following quote from the program to the class:"Life is not a clean, upward thrust, and the American dream is not a straight ladder up. Kind of a corkscrew spiral and ups and downs. There's no place in the world that has had such a profile to its history."- Dick Manoff

Discuss how the lives of the Americans featured in the program reflect this quote. Ask students: What were some of the ups and downs they experienced? How did these events reflect life in our nation during this period?

EvaluationUse the following three-point rubric to evaluate students' work during this lesson.

Three points: Students were active in class discussions; showed a strong understanding of the causes and consequences of the Great Depression and the effects of the New Deal and World War II on the nation's economy; developed thorough, engaging journal entries that reflected the hope and sorrow Americans felt during this period in history.

Two points: Students participated in class discussions; showed a satisfactory understanding of the causes and consequences of the Great Depression and the effects of the New Deal and World War II on the nation's economy; developed clear, complete journal entries that reflected the hope and sorrow Americans felt during this period in history.

One point: Students did not participate in class discussions; showed a weak understanding of the causes and consequences of the Great Depression and the effects of the New Deal and World War II on the nation's economy; developed vague or incomplete journal entries about the hope and sorrow Americans felt during this period in history.

VocabularyDust BowlDefinition:A large region covering the southern Great Plains of the United States that suffered drought, crop failures, and intense dust storms in the 1930sContext:The Grapes of Wrath has become a classic account of the human toll of the Dust Bowl.

Great DepressionDefinition:A period of worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and extended into the early 1940s, characterized by unemployment, poverty, hunger, and despairContext At the height of the Great Depression, about 13 million people were out of work-about one out of every four workers in the country.

immigrantDefinition:A person who comes to a country to live thereContext:African Americans, Mexican immigrants, and women were also hard hit by the Depression.

migrantDefinition:A person who moves regularly to find work, especially one who harvests cropsContext:Homeless and jobless, many migrants were left to fend for themselves, living in tents or cardboard shacks without water or electricity.

New DealDefinition:A series of federal programs introduced by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s to encourage economic reformContext:FDR's New Deal aimed at rebuilding the economy, helping the jobless, and preventing future depressions.

sharecropperDefinition:A tenant farmer who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the crop's value minus expensesContext:Four generations had worked the land as sharecroppers.

speculationDefinition:Engaging in a big financial risk in hopes of making a big profitContext:The Great Depression was caused by overproduction and speculation.

unionDefinition:An organization of workers formed to protect its members' rights and to advance their interests, such as wages and working conditionsContext:The United Auto Workers was the strongest union in America.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL)McREL's Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education addresses 14 content areas. To view the standards and benchmarks, visithttp://www.mcrel.org/.This lesson plan addresses the following national standards:

U.S. History: Era 7-Understands how the United States changed between the post-World War I years and the eve of the Great Depression

U.S. History: Era 8-Understands the causes of the Great Depression and how it affected American society; Understands how the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)NCSS has developed national guidelines for teaching social studies. To become a member of NCSS, or to view the standards online, go tohttp://www.socialstudies.orgThis lesson plan addresses the following thematic standards: